Raines and I got into a tiff Friday morning. He woke up, and announced, “I want to be a dragon for Halloween!”

This was a problem. From Oct 1 – Oct 21, he was intent (after much reading of the Halloween catalogs that came to the house) on going as a “superhero bear”. So I spent quite some time searching for superhero bear possibilities, and ended up ordering an adorable bear hat, tail, and a superhero cape from various Etsy sellers. I also picked up a brown sweatsuit and some fake fur, thinking that I’d hack/glue gun something together.

On Oct 22nd, he announced that he wanted to be Hercules for Halloween. And he kept this up for several days. Which, you know…OK. I can roll with things, and we had already fashioned out a Hercules costume sometime in September (see pic at right). So…if he didn’t want to be a superhero bear anymore, I didn’t want to force him, right?

But now, the dragon. 30 min before we’re supposed to be at our first Halloween party of the weekend. So I talked up superhero bear. No dice. I talked up Hercules. Nope. I let him watch a bit of his favorite Hercules movie…you know, to get him into character. Uhn-Uhn. Sooooo….dragon. In 10 minutes.

“Ok Raines,” I said. “Let’s put this red thing on like this, and we’ll see if it looks dragon-like.” Raines responds by running screaming from the room. Granted, it was a pretty lame dragon, but still.

“Raines! Come back here! We need to get ready for the party!!” More shrieking and running. Frustration levels mounted…and long story short, he was in tears, I was ready to tear out my hair (“Bear?” NO! “Superhero?” NO! “Hercules?” NO! “Do you just want to carry a sword?” NO-OH-OH-OH-Oh-ohhhhh!)…when he looked at me, tearfully and said, “I jus’ wanna be Raines for Halloween, Mum.”

In hindsight, I don’t know why it took me so long to get it. And I don’t know why I cared so much about a costume. Perhaps because I believe in being FESTIVE (all caps intentional) if it kills me. It’s how we grew up. But my little man certainly hasn’t gotten the memo yet. And how can I argue with that? If he’s so comfortable being himself that he doesn’t want to dress up…we must be doing something right…right?

So I scooped him up and told him that the Raines costume was the best costume of all. And we went to the party. All the other kids were dressed up. He couldn’t care less.

Saturday morning, we were on our way to Trick-or-Treat Street at the Children’s Museum. I tried again: “Raines, what costume do you want to wear?” and threw him a wink. He grinned back. “Raines costume,” he replied proudly. We went, in street clothes, and admired the other costumes, played the games, trick-or-treated, and…Raines still stood firm on the costume front.

Love this tacky Halloween stuff. And how cute is Caroline as Dorothy?

Halloween day I called my mom for advice. She suggested I lay the costumes out, let him look at them all together, and see if there was any little piece of the costume that he’d want to wear. I did. There wasn’t. Additionally, we were supposed to go Trick-or-Treating in Stapleton with a bunch of friends (which is an amazing kid mecca of a Denver hood)…but Mike told me I wasn’t allowed. (Admittedly, I am having trouble waddling from the kitchen to the living room without getting winded.) So our Halloween night was looking pretty grim (we don’t get trick-or-treaters in this neighborhood)…when I got a text from Nicole. Her neighbor across the street had set up the so-tacky-it’s-awesome!! display pictured above.

So we trooped over there. Nicole (who is, crazily enough, more pregnant than me) and I were able to watch all of the fun with a glass of wine on the porch (and hand out candy), while the guys brought the kiddos around for a little trick-or-treating. Raines, still firmly clad in his “Raines costume” loved every minute of it.

So next year? He and I will go pick out a costume together, a week or two before Halloween. And if he still doesn’t want one? No sweat – consider my expectations changed. The first of many surprises to come, I’m sure. How fun to discover who he is.